Stringing piano-fortes



B. DREHER. Stringing Piano-lortes.`

No. 228,738. Patented June 15,1880.

APHEFK. WASH UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE BAPTIST DREHER-,-OF CLEVELAND, OHIO.

STRINGING PIANO-FORTES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 228,738, dated June 15, 1880.

Application filed September Q, 1879.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BAPTIST DREHER, of Cleveland, in the county ol" Cuyahoga and State ot' Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Method of Stringing Pianos; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of theinvention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use it, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form part oi this specilication.

In the drawings, Figure l is a side view, illustrating my invention. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same. Fig. 3 is a plan view, showing a modification of my invention 5 and Fig. 4 is a plan view, illustrating another modiiication thereof. Fig. 5 is a plan view, representing the device as applied to a threestringed piano.

Arepresents the souinling-board; B B', the bridges or agrali'es; B2, lthe agraffe-bar or bridge; C, the hitch-pins, D, the hitch-pin block 5 E, the wrest-plank, and F the timing or wrest pins. G Gr are loops or agralies,

' through which the wires or strings pass just beforebeing wound upon the wrest-pins F. H represents the equaliZing-bar. K K are the strings or wires.

It will be noticed that I place the upper surface of the hitch-pin block D and the bearingsurfaces of the agraftes B B' G and the surface of the wrest-plank E substantially on a line or common plane, so that with the equaliZing-bar II removed the strings, if drawn taut, would have no material or operative hearing between hitch-pin and wrest-pin. The equalizin g-bar His located between the agrat'tes B B and the hitch-pins C. It is made of any suitable shape or material, and it should be thick enough in crosssection so that when woven, as it were, through the wires, in the manner'indicated in the drawings, such wires K as pass over it shall exert an upward pull upon their agraii'es, and such wires K as pass under this equaliZing-bar will push or press downward upon their respective agratfes. Thus, if the wires of every other note in the scale are strung over the equalizing-bar and the rest of the wires under said bar, as shown in Fig. 2 of the drawings, there will be no material pressure whatever upon the soundingboard A beneath the agraft'e-bar B2.

Instead of arranging the strings ol" every alieruate note as just above specilied, every alternate string maybe passed respectively above or below the equalizing-bar II, as shown in Fig. 3 of the drawings; or, as shown at Fig. fl, all the strings ot' two, three, or more successive notes may be arranged, say, over the equalizing-bar and all the strings ot an equal number ot' next succeeding notes be passed beneath.

My invention is equally applicable to the squarcl the npr-ight, or the grand l type of pianos.

I am aware that an equalizing-bar has been employed in connection with terraced hitchpiii blocks so arranged and constructed that a part ol" the strings shall be attached above and a part below the level or plane of the agi-altes on the sounding-board bridge. ln a construction of this type the neutralization of pressure upon the sounding-board is primarily a-nd principally dependent upon the up-aml-down pull of the strings on account or" the terraced hitch-pin block, as aforesaid, to which they are attached, and not to the equalizing-bar, which in such a construction is employed as a supplemental or auxiliary addition, and not as an essential, so far as relieving the soundingboard from pressure is concerned.

My invention differs from such a construction mainly in the feature ol" makin the equalizing-bar II the sole and only clement whereby an equalization of the up-and-down pull ol" the strings upon the sounding-board is cllected 5 and this I accomplish by arranging the various parts to which the strings are attached or over or through which they pass substantially on a level ora common plane, and then, when the equalizing-bar- II is applied, as specilied, it alone becomes the element through which the sounding-board is relieved 'from pressure and permitted a more free and unobstructed vibration.

Vhat I claim is- 1. The described method of stringin g pianos, which consists in stretching the wires between two points that are in thelsame plane with the agraffes or passages B upon the soundingboard bridge through which said wires are IOO passed, and in arranging some of said wires over and the rest under an equaliZing-bar, H, located in relation to said agraf'es or passages B substantially as shown, whereby an equalization of the up and the down pull of said wires upon the sounding-board bridge is ef feeted and pressure upon the sounding-board due to the tension ofthe wires relieved.

2. In a piano,the combination7 with agrai'es B B and hitch-pins C, of strings K K', secured to said agrafes and hitch-pins in the saine longitudinal plane, and equalizing-bar H, interwoven transversely among` the strin be tween said agraifes and pins, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed my naine to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

BAPTIST DREHER.

Witnesses:

JNO. CRowELL, Jr., A. W. BRIGHT. 

